The aim of this study was to screen for and estimate the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) among women in Kazeroon, Iran. In November 2007, multistage cluster sampling was employed to recruit 702 women to participate in the study. A descriptive, cross-sectional design was employed. The prevalence of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse against women was 43.7%, 82.6%, and 30.9%, respectively, and there was a significant relationship between IPV and family income, education level, and level of religious commitment in both women and husbands. The study suggests that major strategies for prevention of IPV are empowering women and improving their status in the society by promoting of sexual equality in all rights, especially in employment and education.

Background:Adequate self-care in diabetes improves quality of life and decreases the number of inpatient cases. The health locus of control theory is used to assess adherence to diabetes regimen in some studies in developed countries. The primary purpose of this cross-sectional study is to determine the status of diabetes locus of control in a sample of diabetic patients in Iran as a developing country. We investigated selected factors contributing to locus of control and adherence to diabetes regimen.Materials and Methods:This cross-sectional study was carried out on 120 patients referred to Yazd Diabetes Research Center. The Iranian versions of Diabetes Locus of Control scale and Diabetes Self-care Activities scale were used for data collection.Results:Men revealed more internal locus of control and women revealed more chance locus of control. The attributions of external locus of control increased by age, while the internal locus of control increased by education level and chance locus of control decreased by education level. A positive association between internal locus of control and adherence to diabetes regimen was found and there was a negative association between chance locus of control and adherence to diabetes regimen.Conclusion:Findings suggest that interventions aimed at improving internal locus of control may improve adherence to diabetes regimen but different diabetic patients have different attribution styles and interventional programs to enhance diabetes self-care will be more successful if patient's locus of control is addressed.

Introduction:The aim of this study was to determine self-care predictors in diabetic patients based on health belief model.Materials and Methods:The cross-sectional study was conducted on 110 diabetic patients referred to health service centers in Ardakan city, Yazd, Iran. The data was collected by a questionnaire including perceived benefits, barriers, severity, susceptibility, self-efficacy, social support, self-care behaviors and demographic variables.Results:Regularly medicine use (mean= 6.48 times per week) and shoes checking (mean= 1.17 times per week) were reported as the highest and the lowest self-care behaviors respectively. Health belief model constructs including perceived benefits, barriers, severity, susceptibility, self-efficacy and social support predicted 33.5% of the observed variance of self-care behaviors. Perceived susceptibility and self-efficacy had positive effect on self-care behavior; whereas perceived barrier’s has negative effect. Self-efficacy, perceived susceptibility and barriers were most powerful predictor respectively.Conclusion:The findings approved the efficiency of health belief model in prediction of self-care behaviors among diabetic patients. The findings realized the health belief model structure; therefore, it can be used as a framework for designing and implementing educational interventions in diabetes control plans.

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Background:Sick Building Syndrome is a diseases associated with indoor air quality accompanied with symptoms such as headache, dizziness, nausea, coughing and sneezing, irritation of eyes, throat and nose mucous membrane, and skin itching and inflammation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the symptoms of the syndrome and its related factors among nurses in teaching hospitals of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran.Methods:The study was conducted amongst nurses of three teaching hospitals of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, in Yazd. In this study the MM040EA questionnaire of sick building syndrome and indoor air quality was used and data extracted from the questionnaires were analyzed using the chi-square test and t-test.Results:The prevalence of sick building syndrome was 86.4%. The prevalence of the syndrome was in no association with age, gender, employment history and type of shift work. The most common symptoms reported by nurses included headache, fatigue and dry hands. Lack of sense of airflow, unpleasant odor in workplace (P<0.05), and also the amount of workload (P<0.001) were in relation with sick building syndrome.Conclusion:The high prevalence of sick building syndrome symptoms in the nursing environment was associated with factors of unpleasant odor and high workload of environment. So improvement of environmental conditions such as increasing the efficiency of the HVAC system, increasing fresh air flow in the sector, reducing the nurses workload as well as enhancing the quality of working life, will motivate the nurses and increase productivity in the workplace.

Our results showed that the rate of seat belt use in Iran as a developing country is very low. Thus, developing and implementing effective interventional programs in order to promote seat belt use among car drivers is recommended. The findings of this study provide preliminary support for the TPB model as a more effective framework than HBM for examining seat belt use in car drivers. Our results demonstrated that TPB has greater predictive utility than HBM in seat belt use intention.

Background:Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the number one cause of death in the world. In most analyses of health problems, environment plays a significant and modifiable role in causing the problem either directly or indirectly through behavior.Objectives:This study aims to understand the patients and healthcare providers’ experiences about the environmental determinants of CVD risk factors based on the Precede Model.Patients and Methods:This qualitative study conducted over six months in 2012 at Diabetes Units of Health Centers associated with Alborz University of Medical Sciences and Health Services which is located in Karaj, Iran. The data were collected based on individual semi-structured interviews with 50 patients and 12 healthcare providers. Data analysis was performed simultaneous with data collection using the content analysis directed method.Results:Lack of behaviors like stress control, healthy eating and physical activity were the roots of the risk factors for CVD. The environmental factor is one of the barriers for conducting these behaviors. The environmental barriers included of structural environment including “availability and accessibility of health resources”, “new skills”, and “law and policies” which are located in enabling category and social environment including “social support”, “motivation to comply” and “consequences of behavior” which are located in reinforcing category. The most barriers to performing health behaviors were often structural.Conclusions:The environmental factors were barriers for doing healthy behaviors. These factors need to be considered to design health promotion interventions. Policymakers should not only focus on patients’ education but also should provide specific facilities to enhance economic, social and cultural status.

Objective. This study was conducted to identify some factors (beliefs and norms) which are related to fast food consumption among high school students in Isfahan, Iran. We used the framework of the theory planned behavior (TPB) to predict this behavior. Subjects & Methods. Cross-sectional data were available from high school students (n = 521) who were recruited by cluster randomized sampling. All of the students completed a questionnaire assessing variables of standard TPB model including attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavior control (PBC), and the additional variables past behavior, actual behavior control (ABC). Results. The TPB variables explained 25.7% of the variance in intentions with positive attitude as the strongest (β = 0.31, P < 0.001) and subjective norms as the weakest (β = 0.29, P < 0.001) determinant. Concurrently, intentions accounted for 6% of the variance for fast food consumption. Past behavior and ABC accounted for an additional amount of 20.4% of the variance in fast food consumption. Conclusion. Overall, the present study suggests that the TPB model is useful in predicting related beliefs and norms to the fast food consumption among adolescents. Subjective norms in TPB model and past behavior in TPB model with additional variables (past behavior and actual behavior control) were the most powerful predictors of fast food consumption. Therefore, TPB model may be a useful framework for planning intervention programs to reduce fast food consumption by students.